Under a three-year, $1.5-million grant from the Rockefeller
Foundation, 32 community foundations joined with the United Way of
America in a coalition to advance children's causes. The group hopes
eventually to draw in more than 400 community foundations and more than
2300 United Way affiliates nationwide.

John F. Ramsey, the vice president for external affairs of the
Boston Foundation and a co-chairman of the coalition, discussed it with
Assistant Editor Deborah L. Cohen.

Q. How did the coalition come about?

A. In the fall of 1989, Hugh Price of the Rockefeller Foundation ...
issued a challenge to community foundations to establish a more
coherent and visible presence for children's issues across the country.
That challenge was followed up by a series of meetings... which
culminated in a conference in Indianapolis this past fall where the
operating principles and organizational structure of the coalition were
endorsed by community foundation executives and United Way
officials.

One of the beauties of the coalition is that [it] will customize its
efforts in each locality by determining which agenda item has highest
priority and the potential for the greatest impact. [Its] importance
lies in activating key leaders and institutional players in any given
community, whether it is around immunization, affordable housing,
early-childhood education, or child care... so that we can make more
than token gains for kids.

Q. Why are nonprofit organizations rallying around children's
causes?

A. What the formation of the coalition signifies is a recognition
that we have truly reached a crisis moment in the social and economic
history of this country. Child poverty, births to unmarried teens, and
teenage violent deaths have all increased dramatically over the past 10
years--that's just three indicators that children are neglected to
their great peril and the great peril of a society attempting to update
itself as a viable economic force.

Q. What kinds of children's issues is the Boston Foundation involved
in?

A. Our president chairs the city's maternal-health commission, which
is working to bring about a significant reduction in low-birthweight
babies and infant deaths. We have also been active in teenage pregnancy
prevention and have taken a lead role in structuring youth and
community service initiatives and [in] developing a youth-led
commission organizing around substance abuse and violence prevention.
The foundation has also convened over the past two years a seminar on
child care that involved 75 community leaders drawn from business,
universities, government, and the nonprofit world to map out a
decade-long program for the reform and strengthening of child care in
Boston.

Q. What strengths can community foundations bring to child
advocacy?

A. [We] take the long view of community need and are focused on
gathering accurate information and adapting to current challenges and
future issues [and engaging] a cross section of leaders in their
communities to do strategic planning and candid problem-solving.

Q. What is the best strategy to secure funding for children's
programs in these recessionary times?

A. One that carefully documents the magnitude of the issues facing
children and communicates those needs through the media effectively.
[Too often], we have given the impression that only a small segment of
abjectly poor kids are at risk, when, in fact, the majority of
children--extending from those in extreme poverty to the working poor,
even into lower- and middle-class families are jeopardized by a failing
public education system, health system, and lack of affordable
housing.

Our charge is to do a far more effective job of framing the nature
of those issues.

The coalition is enlisting people like Jay Winston of the Harvard
University School of Public Health, who was responsible for designing
the "designated driver campaign, to help prepare a similar campaign
around children's issues.

Ground Rules for Posting
We encourage lively debate, but please be respectful of others. Profanity and personal attacks are prohibited. By commenting, you are agreeing to abide by our user agreement.
All comments are public.